Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-08-05
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A PIONEER GHOST.

.'He an early q plOneer-Sugdr camp. a
cn:siderable bit of the primitive wood had
i;cn preserved, quite enough to hide the boil
iIy rks The kettles were hung by beech
t.lmmels, on lug pole-there Were the store,
trough, tie sap yoke and buckets, the small,
rather too neat cabin. Right about head
quarters were the ak madesap troughs-all as
In the primitive times.
The day-the last of two or three successive
sun bright days, indicating the lne of the
sugar season, and the kindling of the year
had been ell that a single day could well be-.
1t was past, the girls were gone, and night
was making IFS approach seen and felt in the
ancient wood, helping the cherished illusions
the years turned back, the grand forest
restored the silent group in the deepening
twilight were boys again, in the depth of the
wooos. The girls were gone. 1t had been
great day for them, old girls, yet for the day,
girls. They have rambled. little heavy
footed and slow, through the woods, where
the earlier flowers of the spring began to
show themselves-the liverworts, blood roots,
the spray like ground nuts, and many budded
spring beauty. In the favored place few
real leeks stabbed up There he'd been q
butterfly seen Topping among the trees,
lighting on the sap spouts, and many honey
bees, robins and blue birds were there, chick
adees, blue jays and the nut hatch-winter
residents these last; all these had been noted
,ed over and the girls were gone. Ann,
l'r Ounger sister Helen, and one Of the Dams
a. with them. So Elizabeth and Minerva
: Is with Elvira for the night. Elderly
6. all called such for the time.
ae boys, Roosevelt, Monroe, another Dan,
Cat. John, of the hundred lay company,
u Liam and Theo-these last came down from
Michigan; stood rather pensively about the
rude furnace and boiling copper kettles, con-
versing in subdued voices in the perceptible
twilight, under the primitive trees. The fire
was growing conspicuous, and its sparks
visible. A colony of frogs from the swale BE-
low Were making themselves heard, among
which were the piercing notes of few ny
lodes, which usually precede the croakers
1--WE shan't make any more good sugar." said
Monroe, in his chest tones.
"These are the first of them, said Dan.
They will be frozen up three times. No;
good sugar after the second is the old rule.
Then followed some discussion of the rela-
tions of frogs to the conditions favorable to
sugar making. The conclusion was that they
only indicated the advance of the season.
There was an old time incident of the
neighborhood, which, though now forgotten,
occurred since the johnson boys went to
Michigan, and which r. had promised to tell
them of after the girls left, and they now
claimed performance
You know l can't tell story, and this is
- a story and has no come out of any sort"
his hesitating preliminary. He was no
Z Il talller at the best. THAT is the ruls
no >" said Dan, who remained. "A man be-
gi..s anywhere in the current of everyday
life, takes a commonplace person or two and
sticks to them for a year or SO, tells usually
y at they don't do and the reason or no rea-
son why, and drops them. As yours is all
about gbost'-
"A ghost that is not ghost" put in thu
proposed narrator.
"Who haunted an old barn, thirty by
forty"-
"Or didn't" interiected Monroe.
"Or didn't accepted Dan, sit will run in
the line of the present school exactly"
There was a pause of a moment, when
Roswell, his back to the fire, threw his head
up suddenly Sideways way of his-and
began:
at was about this time of year, and Just
such spell of weather as this-Anscomb had
acted little queerly all winter-longer. 1t
came on so slowly, with such steady down
grade, that those who saw him every day, as
we did hardly observed it. 1t was queer.
He was an unusually intelligent man. He
was bright in the morning, and grew dull,
little cloudy. perhaps, toward night, and
wasn't much seen after dark, when he had
way of lingering about the lower barn, where
his COWS and young cattle We're kept He
took entire charge of these, had them ali well
h,oke; every cow. heifer and steer, down to
tie calves, knew its name, and when the sta
BE door was opened they all filed in like
company of drilled soldiers. He had a way
OF opening the door, and getting up on to the
:" big BEAM" IA large square timber known by
that name) where he could sec their heads,
and called each by name, and he re-
manned there talking to them a long
time, until somebody came and called
him in to supper. If you happened
there any time about dusk, you were sure tc
hear him from his perch calling out to them
in his peculiar voice. found him there once
or twice-Tve always been sorry Idid-sitting
up there doubled over by purlne post, his
head canted down on one SIDE wearing the
little old fragment of straw hat-he wore it
all that winter about the barn. was sorry
because it helped out the shape of the appari-
ton later. Well, one night-the night he did
not come in-Supper was ready and one of
the smaller girls was sent to call him. 1t was
fifteen rods or so away, and just growing
twilight. She heard him as she approached
the barn, raped on the outSide-the usual
signal-and as he did not answer she opened
the small door and peeped in. What she saw
she did not describe Immediately. 1t was
darker inside, and grueSome, with all the
cattle munching hay, and their eyes gleam-
ing in tho vanishing light with a dim lam
bent buIning. She was frightened and
ran back 10 the house, told something, and
one of TIE boys went down, struck a sharp
blow or two on the door, and called very de-
cidedly. lie said lie got an answer, went
back, and they eat supper As he did not
then come, the older ones went out, taking a
lantern. As they approached the door they
heard his voice usual, made rap on it and
got an answer they said-waited moment,
called and received no answer, no reply,
opened the door. went in, and there be
hanged, suspended from the big beam, stone
dead-had been dead some time. Soon after
it came out that she little girl saw something
hanging from his neck
1Well'-a pause.
NO matter about the shock, the CHASTITY
horror, the funeral and all that" said Dan
Il had to tell so much.n said r. "as an in
PRODUCTION | don't know who cared for the
lower barn stock the next morning. | took
the labor on myself the next evening, as
knew Anscomb's ways and his cattle about
as well as he did. As l said-the weather
was about like this, and that night was Just
such another, and notwithstanding the horror,
the charm of the days and the oncoming
night had in way been with me through
it all, and was on me when went to the